TThhee SScciieennccee ooff SSoocccceerr Jay H. Williams, Ph.D. www.scienceofsocceronline.com

EATING ON THE RUN Suggestions for On The Road

Eating a proper diet is one of the most important simple guidelines, you can find foods to meet your components of match preparation and recovery. nutritional requirements. Choosing the right meals can help improve your performance on the field. Eating the wrong foods can Picking the Right Foods lead to disaster. Diet is especially important at tournament time when you are away from home and The most important thing to remember is to look for eating on the road. Playing two games per day with a foods that are high in CHO and low in fat. Pick foods short period to re-fuel between matches makes eating that have less that 20% of their calories as fat, about 50- properly difficult. Despite this, you cannot forget to eat 100 grams of CHO and about 10-15 grams of protein. well between matches. The question is, how can you Your best bets are lean meat . Bread eat properly when away from home? provides the CHO and meat provides the protein. If you’re in doubt about how much fat and CHO are in When you’re on the road, it’s always best to bring your fast foods, the nutritional information for all menu own food to eat between games. You can be sure that items should be posted somewhere in the restaurant. To you have proper nutritional choices that include plenty 1 calculate the % fat, use the formula below (assume that of carbohydrates (CHO) and are low in fat . You can fat has 9 kcal per gram). Also, follow a few simple also bring foods that you enjoy and spend your guidelines to insure that you’re ready to play the next recovery time relaxing rather than standing in line, match. waiting for your food to be served.

(fat grams x 9) Packing your lunch for a tournament can be difficult %FAT = ------x 100% and sometimes impractical. When you’re not able to (total calories) bring your own lunch and need to eat quickly between matches, your options generally involve fast food. In this case, proper nutritional choices are limited. Most fast food restaurants serve food that is high in fat and sodium and low in CHO. The exact opposite of what you need. But, if you are savvy and remember a few

1 For information about nutritional strategies for tournaments, see the Science of Soccer article, “Tournament Nutrition” (Dec 2007).

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Fast Food Guidelines Honey Cured Ham sandwiches. As with , a slice or two of cheese does not dramatically increase Limit mayonnaise on sandwiches: A teaspoon of the fat content of these sandwiches. mayonnaise has around 35 kcal, nearly all of which is fat. : Surprisingly, Taco Bell offers a number of excellent choices. Some of their selections are high in Avoid anything fried: Especially french fries, chicken fat but some are very low fat, high CHO and protein. nuggets and chips. French fries are about 50% fat and The best choices are the bean, chicken and steak hare generally high in salt. burritos. Avoid sides such as nachos and chili cheese fries. Avoid adding extra salt: Even though they do not taste “salty”, most fast foods have plenty of sodium. Wendy’s: The best choice on the Wendy’s menu is their baked potato. A plain potato has virtually no fat and Be careful with : Most hamburgers do not lots of CHO. If you add a bit of butter or sour cream, use lean ground meat so the fat content is usually high. you can still keep the fat content below 15%. There are Look for baked chicken and turkey instead. a few other choices including the Chili and Ultimate Chicken Grill. Unfortunately, most of their sandwiches Salads are not recommended: They don’t offer a lot of come with lots of mayonnaise or other fatty spreads. calories, have little CHO and sometimes the dressings are high in fat. KFC: Believe it or not, a fried chicken place has several reasonable lunch options. The Honey BBQ and Lay off the soda: Sodas are high in simple sugars, not Tender Roast sandwiches have baked chicken. You the type of CHO needed. Instead, bring a sport drink should avoid any of their fried products. The only such as Gatorade or fruit juice. exception is the Original Recipe chicken breast, with the skin removed. However, there is lots of protein but little CHO. Fast Food Choices Chick-Fil-A: The specialty at Chick-Fil-A is chicken. What are the best choices for fast food eating? For the Unfortunately, most of their sandwiches contain fried most part, look for lean meat sandwiches, burritos, fruit chicken and those that have baked chicken usually add and vegetables. If you must go the fast food route, here bacon. Your best bet here is the Chargrilled Chicken are a few selections that meet the nutritional needs of . young athletes: McDonalds: There is not a lot to choose from at Subway: Subway offers several great options for McDonalds. Most sandwiches are high in fat and other tournament fast food. Most of their sandwiches are low items are fried. Even their plain hamburgers, which do in fat and high in CHOs. Especially those made with not have mayonnaise, are in excess of 30% fat. Add turkey or chicken. An example is the Subway club and cheese or the Big Mac special sauce and the fat content the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. approaches 50%. About the only thing available is the Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich. The turkey breast and turkey breast with ham subs have similar nutritional compositions. Adding cheese : As with McDonalds, BK doesn’t offer increases the fat content but, with cheese, these much for the athlete. Nearly everything on the menu sandwiches are still below 20% fat. Bread choices has fat contents above 30%. The Whopper with cheese basically the same, except for the cheese topped breads tops the list at a whopping 56% fat. About the only which have higher fat content. Avoid sandwiches that healthy choice available is the Tendergrill Chicken are made with “fatty” meats such as the Italian BMT, Sandwich ordered without mayonnaise. Spicy Italian or the Meatball Marinara. And, limit the mayonnaise, creamy dressings (ranch, chipotle : For lunch between matches, Pizza Hut southwest sauce, etc) and oils. should be avoided. Most pizza selections have between 30-40% fat, including the Veggie Lover’s Pizza. Even : Quiznos has lots of great sandwich choices, their new Fit n’ Delicious pizzas still have around 25% but only if ordered correctly. One of Quizno’s fat. If you must have pizza, your best choice is ham trademarks is the sauces and dressings that are added to and pineapple with 220 kcal per slice and only 31% fat. make their sandwiches unique (ranch, peppercorn, zesty grille sauces). Most of these increase the fat content so Other Restaurants: There are several other restaurants be sure to remove these from you order. A few god that are not considered “fast food” but do offer selections are the Black Angus, Tuscan turkey and relatively fast service. These include

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and the Bread Company. There are also a Conclusions number of local deli’s and sandwich / sub shops that have excellent meal choices. For the most part, your The key to eating on the road is to look for meals that best bet is to stick with lean meat sandwiches (turkey are high in CHO and low in fat. It cannot be stressed and chicken) and go light on the mayonnaise and other enough that when you are away from home, your best sauces. option is to pack your lunch. That way you can ensure meals that meet proper nutritional goals. When packing Detailed Nutritional Information lunch is not possible or impractical practical your between-match meal options are often limited to fast The table below provides detailed nutritional food. While most argue that fast food is never a good information on various fast food products. The option, there are a few restaurants that offer healthy information presented was obtained for each choices. By using a few simple suggestions and restaurant’s website. Remember, the goal is to select educating yourself, you can find nutritionally sound foods that are low in fat (<20%) and high in CHO (50- meals are some familiar restaurants. 100g) while providing some protein (10-15g).

FAST FOOD NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION RESTAURANT kcal % Fat CHO (g) Prot (g) Subway Subway Club (12”) 514 16 94 48 Over Roasted Chicken Breast (12”) 477 16 95 47 Quiznos Black Angus (regular w/o cheese, sauce) 650 20 78 55 Tuscan Turkey (regular w/o cheese, sauce) 490 14 77 33 Honey Cured Ham (regular w/o cheese, sauce) 450 17 65 32 Taco Bell Bean Burrito 370 12 55 13 Chicken or Steak Burrito Supreme 415 20 52 18 Bean, Chicken or Steak Burrito Fresco 349 8 54 28 Wendy’s Baked Potato (no butter of sour cream) 270 0 61 7 Chili (large) 330 25 35 25 Ultimate Chicken Grill 320 20 36 28 KFC KFC Snacker Honey BBQ 210 14 32 14 Honey BBQ Sandwich 280 11 40 22 Tender Roast Sandwich (w/o sauce) 217 13 28 37 Original Recipe Chicken Breast (skin removed) 140 14 1 29 Chick-Fil-A Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich 270 11 33 28 McDonalds Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich 420 21 51 32 Burger King Tendergrill Chicken Sandwich 400 16 49 36 References: www.subway.com www.tacobell.com www.kfc.com www.mcdonalds.com www.quiznos.com www.wendys.com www.chick-fil-a.com www.burgerking.com

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